Sentencing in Brar attack case fixed for December

Three Sikh men and a woman convicted of carrying out a life-threatening attack on Lt Gen (retd) K S Brar, the hero of the 1984 Operation Blue Star, will be sentenced on December 10, a UK court ruled on Monday.

The pro-Khalistani supporters had tried to slash the throat of the 78-year-old retired Indian Army officer as a revenge attack on the streets of London last year for his role in leading Operation Blue Star to flush out extremists from the Sikh holy shrine of GoldenTemple in Amritsar.

While Barjinder Singh Sangha, 33, had pleaded guilty to the offence early on in the case, Mandeep Singh Sandhu, 34, Dilbagh Singh, 36, and Harjit Kaur, 38, were found guilty following a trial at Southwark Crown Court in London on July 31.

All four are to be sentenced for the crime at the same court during an estimated two-hour sentencing hearing fixed for December 10.

"It is a fairly straightforward case. A pre-sentencing report must be circulated around a week before the sentencing hearing," said Judge Pedgen during a "mention hearing", which was held to agree on a sentencing date suitable for all parties involved.

The case had been initially listed for September 19, which proved "non-effective" as the pre-sentencing document had not been issued.

During the trial in July, the prosecution had revealed that Kaur had tracked the retired soldier as he holidayed in London’s West End with his wife Meena.

She then passed on the Brars' whereabouts to the attackers in September 2012.

Sangha, Sandhu and Singh are accused of carrying out the attack itself and were found guilty of wounding the general with intent.

Lt Gen Brar, giving evidence via videolink from India, said that one website had declared him the "number one enemy of the Sikhs".

Another threat he said he received read: "There have been seven attempts on his life which have not succeeded, but the eighth one will."

He was not protected on his trip to London, which he said was a private holiday.